ABSTRACT
This chapter begins with non-academic support and particularly the area of advising, because there are general principles that can be drawn that apply to other areas of student support. Students will be able to surf the Internet to find the information they need, but anyone who has tried to recover a specific item of information from the Internet will know that this is not always easy and can be very time consuming. Student support advisers will express a range of personal qualities and use a variety of skills in their work. The essence and main activity of advising is indeed active perceptive listening. A good adviser will also use his or her experience and skill to help the student clarify and conceptualize the issue or problem, as well as challenging the student's perceptions when appropriate. Students fail for many reasons, many of them non-academic such as time, motivation and assessment anxiety.
